rabble.ca - privacy protectionhttp://dev-acquia.rabble.ca/category/tags/privacy-protection
enThe Facebook data scandal: How protected are Canadians?http://dev-acquia.rabble.ca/columnists/2018/05/facebook-data-scandal-how-protected-are-canadians
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-22 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/issues/civil-liberties-watch">Civil Liberties Watch</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/issues/politics-canada">Politics in Canada</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/issues/technology">Technology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://dev-acquia.rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/29972713206_69f85c47b3_k.jpg?itok=UM02UyGv" width="1180" height="600" alt="Data on computer screen. Image: Blogtrepreneur/Flickr" title="Data on computer screen. Image: Blogtrepreneur/Flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>"We are sorry."</p>
<p>This is what the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/facebook-execs-house-of-commons-sorry-1.4626206" target="_blank">head of public policy for Facebook in Canada has said</a> in regards to the revelation that over 600,000 Canadians have had their privacy compromised and their data used by Cambridge Analytica.</p>
<p>When whistleblower Christopher Wylie <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election" target="_blank">revealed</a> that Cambridge Analytica had inappropriately collected information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users, he also showed the world the incredible scale of how social media companies and data brokers are harvesting and exploiting the private social media activity of millions of people around the world.</p>
<p>And it's shown us something else: how Canada's privacy laws have failed to protect us, and how they have no power to help us prevent something like this from happening again.</p>
<p>The law that governs our private data is called PIPEDA (the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act). It governs how private companies collect and use our personal information.</p>
<p>But when violations are found, the act is toothless: it gives no power for our Privacy Commissioner to issue penalties or force compliance. This means that companies have no incentive to comply, and if caught, suffer no real consequences. Political parties have a remarkable incentive to keep things as they are: they're exempt from the law, free to acquire, store and utilize your personal information however they wish.</p>
<p>And what's more, despite years of recommendations, our government had been stalling on implementing key fixes that could give our laws the teeth they need to take action on this. This includes things like implementing a data breach notification regime, putting an end to political parties being exempt from privacy laws, and providing actual powers to enforce compliance orders.</p>
<p>However, as pressure has increased from every direction following news of the data scandal, we're seeing the first signs of positive movement from our government.</p>
<p>The government has just <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2018/04/03/mandatory-data-privacy-breach-disclosure-rules-to-come-into-force-nov-1/" target="_blank">pushed forward mandatory data breach disclosure rules</a> that have been been delayed for nearly three years. We've also heard from the Acting Democratic Institutions Minister that <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/government-privacy-laws-facebook-legislation-brison-1.4600104" target="_blank">he would be open to making changes to Canada's privacy laws</a>, while the Privacy Commissioner has <a href="https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/news-and-announcements/2018/nr-c_180320/" target="_blank">launched an investigation</a> to find out if the data of any Canadians was compromised.</p>
<p>It's clear that there's an appetite for change -- but we must continue to <a href="https://act.openmedia.org/PIPEDA" target="_blank">push for a commitment to reform all the out-of-date parts of our privacy laws that are failing to protect us</a>. With federal elections due in 2019, we need to safeguard our democracy and protect against undue influence stemming from online privacy violations.</p>
<p>What this scandal has really highlighted is how aggressive business models built on data harvesting, combined with deceptive marketing, which misleads users about their privacy options, lead to disturbing privacy violations like this.</p>
<p>Facebook's half-hearted apology to Canadians only makes it clearer that companies like this will never improve their practices unless the law compels them. With news of major data breaches coming almost every day now, <a href="https://act.openmedia.org/PIPEDA" target="_blank">it's time for the government to step up and give us all the protection we deserve</a>.</p>
<p><em>Victoria Henry is a Campaigner at OpenMedia, a community-based organization that works to keep the Internet open, affordable, and surveillance-free.</em></p>
<p><em>Image: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/143601516@N03/29972713206/in/photolist-ndtLaK-ndu38p-ndtKZp-nbrhn7-ndtKwv-9NzwBG-9NxbkP-9LEhaw-dPxnRe-9NKVq9-hhNozi-fjHcoT-26kTymp-24ZEGTn-5C6t2-MEzZpm-WCTebA-Vqg5Gw-NwvbCd-PwbUAR-x6YMd4-JmB8Q7-21kQsTs-Xiin5J-Kbb1AX-yMtUTk-22nPTke-ndtKMa-nbrkiU-kKsSyg-c6TEyq-ixSrT5-62mnwQ-ndu3qt-nbrjZh-nbrk9L-nbrhEm-ypJtcR-iU8uSS-XPBcvg-Vqg5Cd-XdShuq-CZRLSE-AcT2at-AvNvzS-VucXu9-XPB8v2-XPB9UK-nbrkfh-nbrekk" target="_blank">Blogtrepreneur/Flickr</a></em></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/digital-freedom-update">Digital Freedom Update</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/privacy-rights">privacy rights</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/data-collection">data collection</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/facebook">facebook</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/cambridge-analytica">Cambridge Analytica</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags/privacy-protection">privacy protection</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/bios/victoria-henry">Victoria Henry</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/bios/columnist/digital-freedom-update">Digital Freedom Update</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">May 1, 2018</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/04/cost-free-expression-online-women" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The cost of free expression online for women </a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">With online platforms increasingly being a site of public discourse in democratic societies, gendered online violence silences and makes invisible a key sector of society in the public sphere.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/other-hand/2018/03/wtf-say-50-million-facebook-users">WTF? Say 50 million Facebook users</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Facebook is just the latest and most sophisticated medium to sell our eyes and attention to advertisers. There&#039;s a new media saying that crops up over and over again, a variation on &quot;buyer beware.&quot;</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/03/dont-despair-here-some-hope-despite-cambridge-analytica-and-facebook" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Don&#039;t despair, here is some hope despite Cambridge Analytica and Facebook</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">I tend to see the horrors of manipulation as less striking than the signs of human ability to act independently anyway. How else do you explain unexpected events like Bernie Sanders&#039; surge?</div></div></div>Tue, 01 May 2018 14:30:20 +0000rabble staff144981 at http://dev-acquia.rabble.cahttp://dev-acquia.rabble.ca/columnists/2018/05/facebook-data-scandal-how-protected-are-canadians#commentsTPP continues attack on privacy with restrictions on data localization requirementshttp://dev-acquia.rabble.ca/news/2016/01/tpp-continues-attack-on-privacy-restrictions-on-data-localization-requirements
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Michael Geist</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news/2016/01/tpp-continues-attack-on-privacy-restrictions-on-data-localization-requirements"><img src="http://dev-acquia.rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/4502026170_4bf31f04e6_z.jpg?itok=d583OYbo" width="1180" height="600" alt="Photo: flickr/ Gary Hayes" title="Photo: flickr/ Gary Hayes" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p><em>Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Chip in</a> to keep stories like these coming.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></p>
<p><em>Problems? Oh, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has a few! <a href="http://rabble.ca/category/tags/trouble-tpp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Read</a> about them all in the new series <a href="http://rabble.ca/category/tags/trouble-tpp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">The Trouble with the TPP</a>.</em></p>
<p>If all TPP countries implemented similarly strong privacy protections, there would be little need to consider alternative mechanisms to enhance public confidence in their privacy through additional legal safeguards.</p>
<p>However, the Trouble with the TPP is that it actually weakens privacy protections by treating voluntary undertakings as equivalent to comprehensive privacy laws. The TPP goes further in harming privacy, however, by restricting the use of data localization requirements that might otherwise be used to provide privacy protection.</p>
<p>Data localization has emerged as an increasingly popular legal method for providing some additional assurances about the privacy protection for personal information. Although heavily criticized by those who fear that it harms the free flow of information, requirements that personal information be stored within the local jurisdiction is an unsurprising reaction to concerns about the lost privacy protections if the data is stored elsewhere.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.albrightstonebridge.com/files/ASG%20Data%20Localization%20Report%20-%20September%202015.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Data localization requirements</a> are popping up <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/its-2014-do-you-know-where-your-data-is-or-came-from/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">around the world</a> with European requirements in countries such as <a href="https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2015/10/16/german-parliament-adopts-data-retention-law-with-localization-requirement/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Germany</a>, Russia, and Greece; Asian requirements in Taiwan, <a href="http://fedscoop.com/tpp-will-ban-data-localization-laws" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Vietnam, and Malaysia</a>; Australian requirements for health records, and Latin America requirements in Brazil. Canada has not been immune to the rules either with both British Columbia and Nova Scotia creating localization requirements for government data.</p>
<p>In response to mounting public concern and government regulations, global companies are starting to offer local servers. Last week, Amazon <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/amazon-aws-montral-data-center-1.3405616" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">announced plans</a> to establish Canadian-based cloud computing services, and last year <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/06/03/first-two-microsoft-data-centers-coming-to-canada-in-2016/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Microsoft</a> pledged to do the same. In fact, Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith is <a href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/79946.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">on record</a> that people should be able to choose where their data resides.</p>
<p>Despite the momentum toward data localization as a privacy protection measure, Article 14.13 of the TPP establishes a restriction on legal requirements to do so:</p>
<blockquote><p>"No Party shall require a covered person to use or locate computing facilities in that Party's territory as a condition for conducting business in that territory."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This general provision is subject to at least three exceptions. First, government services are excluded, meaning that the Canadian provincial laws remain in place. Second, there is an exception for financial services, which has <a href="http://kelly.house.gov/sites/kelly.house.gov/files/documents/Kelly%20Paulsen%20Moulton%20Kuster%20Data%20Localization%20Letter%20to%20USTR%20Treasury%20NEC%20SIGNED%201-11-2016.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">sparked protest</a> from some members of the U.S. Congress. The exclusion is <a href="https://twitter.com/wcrozer/status/672100982424236032" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">reportedly</a> due to demands from the U.S. Treasury, which wanted to retain the right to establish restrictions on financial data flows.</p>
<p>The third exception is cited by supporters of the TPP as evidence that privacy protections are still a possibility. The exception states:</p>
<blockquote><p>"Nothing in this Article shall prevent a Party from adopting or maintaining measures inconsistent with paragraph 2 to achieve a legitimate public policy objective, provided that the measure: <br />(a) is not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade; and <br />(b) does not impose restrictions on the use or location of computing facilities greater than are required to achieve the objective."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When combined with a <a href="http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2004/may/tradoc_117019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">1999 WTO reference to privacy</a>, the argument is that privacy could be viewed as a legitimate public policy objective and therefore qualify for an exception.</p>
<p>The problem is that the historical record overwhelmingly suggests that reliance on this exception will not work. As Public Citizen noted in a <a href="https://www.citizen.org/documents/general-exception.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">study on the general exception language</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>"the exceptions language being negotiated for the TPP is based on the same construct used in Article XX of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and Article XIV of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This is alarming, as the GATT and GATS exceptions have only ever been successfully employed to actually defend a challenged measure in one of 44 attempts. That is, the exceptions being negotiated in the TPP would, in fact, not provide effective safeguards for domestic policies."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, the exception is illusory since the requirements are so complex (each aspect must be met) that countries relying on the exception have failed in 43 out of 44 cases. For countries concerned about the weakened privacy protections, the TPP restricts the use of data localization requirements as a remedy just as more and more countries are exploring such rules.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>This piece originally appeared on </em><a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2016/01/the-trouble-with-the-tpp-day-12-restrictions-on-data-localization-requirements/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Michael Geist's blog</a><em> and is reprinted with permission.</em></p>
<p><em>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/4502026170/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">flickr/ Gary Hayes</a></em></p>
</p></div></div></div>Wed, 20 Jan 2016 19:07:54 +0000rabble staff122573 at http://dev-acquia.rabble.ca